Self-igniting cigarette



March 23, 1943. A, DANNUNZIO SELF-IGNITING CIGARETTE Filed Feb. 27, 1941 namely, a mixture Patented Mar. 23, 1943 UNITED STAT SELF-IGNITING CIGARETTE Alfred DAnnnnzio,

DAnnunzio, Giuseppe administrators of said Calderone,

* DAnnnnzio, deceased Application February 27, 1941, Serial No. 380,931

l'claim. (Cl. 131-7) This invention relates to self-lighting cigarettes, particularly of the type having a striking tip which ignites upon frictional engagement with a striking surface. I

While many type of self-lighting cigarettes have heretofore been developed, certain de- "ficiencies have inhibited their development. It

is an object of thisinvention to correct these deficiencies by providing, first, a cigarette of this type having a striking tip which, when ignited, will not fiare up in the direction of the body of the cigarette. a

Another object is to form a striking tip in the end of a cigarette, which tip will not fall or be knocked off upon striking.

Still another objective is the provision of a selfigniting cigarette having the appearance of an ordinary cigarette, and being so constructed as to utilize the same size and type package used for ordinary cigarettes. a

Most particularly, it is proposed herein to provide a self-lighting cigarette-having a striking tip of material which, upon combustion thereof,

will not alter or impair the flavor of the tobacco in the rest of the cigarett'e,and, further, will give ofi no noxious odors.

A further object is to provide a cigarette of this type in which, when the striking tip is ignited, the tobacco forming the cigarette is necessarily ignited, whether or not the cigarette be immediately smoked.

Another proposal is to provide a cigarette of this type which is inexpensive to make, which is subject to production by machinery, and the formation of which may be carried out in continuous, uninterruptedsteps. These and other objectiveawillbe apparent from the following specification and drawing, in which- Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing the new cigarette;

gig. 2 is an end view showin the striking tip, Fig. 3 is a cross-section taken vertically through the middle of the striking end of the cigarette.

Referring to the drawing, the reference numeral 2 denotes the self-striking cigarette formed of the usual tubular paper wrapper 4 encasing tobacco. In this respect, the cigarette 2 is similar to any one of a number of well-known brands of cigarettes now on the market. In the end of the cigarette which is to be lit, however, there is embedded a striker formed of two portions, namely, a base 8 and a striker ill.

Base 8 is formed of deflagrating material,

of chlorate of potash, tobacco, and antimony sulphide, with a small portion of emery, mixed with suilicient adhesive binder, such as gum arabic or gum tragacanth to form a pisstic pasty mass.

- striker being Roosevelt, N. Y., Antonio De Blasio, and Concetta Alfred Base 8 is applied by forming a small indentation in the end of the cigarette, and then pressing a pellet of the plastic, pasty mass into the identation. The indentation is formed, preferably, by a conical tool pressed, point first, into the end of the cigarette so as to form a substantially conical recess. The-pellet is of such size as substantially to fill the recess. When pressed into the recess, the material in the pellet, which forms base 8, commingles with the tobacco 6 in the remainder of the cigarette so that when the binder hardens, the tobacco shreds in the base are bonded to-the shreads of tobacco forming the remainder of the cigarette, thus to anchor the base firmly in the cigarette. A further feature of this step is that the paper at the end of the cigarette is in no way affected by the binder.

Finally, the striker l0, comprising a pellet of chlorate of potash, antimony sulphide, emery, and sufllcient adhesive binder, such as gum arabic, to form a pasty, plastic mass, is placed on base 8, with which it becomes an integral part.

The cigarette maybe ignited by rubbing the striker l0 against any s table striking surface of the type conventionally used on safety-match boxes. Preferably, such a striking surface isprovided on the cigarette package.

When ignited, the striker l0 ignites base I, which, together with the tobacco mixed therein, rapidly combusts and ignites the tobacco in the end of the cigarete. Fiaring to the sides or rearwardly is prevented by the tobacco surrounding base 8 and, simultaneously, positive ignition of such tobacco is assured.

, intended that this invention be not limited to the specific disclosures, but only by the following claim.

What I claim and Patent is= A self-lighting cigarette, comprising a tubular wrapper, tobacco shreds therein, said shreds at one end of the wrapper being spaced from the edge thereof and having a conical recess formationin the central portion of that end, a pellet consisting of shredded tobacco, adhesive binder, and other burnable material completely filling the recess and peripherally spaced from the interior surface of the wrapper on all sides, and a striker of ignitable material secured to the Pellet and projecting outwardly past the edge of the cigarette, the maximum width dimens on of the substantially less than t est transverse dimension of that portion of the pellet facing outwardly at that end of the cigarette in which the pellet is located.

desire to secure by Letters e small- 

